The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) passed in 1991 regulates, in part, aspects of originating certain types of telephone calls. Specifically, the TCPA statute and Federal Communications Commission's (“FCC”) regulations interpreting the TCPA prohibit the use of an “autodialer” to place calls to certain types of telephone numbers (simply referred to as “numbers” herein), including calls to any number “assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call.” 47 U.S.C. § 227(b) (1) (A); 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(1). This covers what is commonly referred to as a “wireless number” that is assigned to a mobile phone. For simplicity, this term (“wireless number”) is used herein to refer to numbers that cannot be called under the TCPA using an autodialer.
The FCC regulates aspects of the TCPA and has considered the scope of the term “autodialer.” The TCPA and FCC's rules have defined an “automatic telephone dialing system” (“autodialer”) as “equipment which has the capacity (A) to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and (B) to dial such numbers.” U.S.C. § 227(a) (1). At the time the statute was passed, dialers were frequently configured to originate calls by dialing a random telephone number or dialing telephone numbers in sequence (e.g., 404 555-0000 through 404 555-9999). Hence, the definition of an autodialer incorporated aspects of processing telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator.
Over time, the FCC has interpreted the scope of an “autodialer” to include equipment that “need only have the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers.” (See Rules and Regulations Implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, Report and Order, 18 FCC Rcd. 14014 ¶133 (2003)). Coincident with this time period, predictive dialers were increasingly being used to originate calls to wireline numbers. Predictive dialers can originate calls using a list of numbers to be called with reduced agent waiting time. There is little debate that many predictive dialers do not use “random or sequential number generators.” However, the FCC has classified predictive dialers as “autodialers” in certain instances to ensure that the prohibition on autodialed calls was not circumvented by automatically dialing “lists of numbers” instead of creating and dialing 10 digit telephone numbers arbitrarily. The FCC has viewed a basic function of an autodialer as equipment having the “capacity to dial numbers without human intervention.” Id. ¶131. Thus, it appears that equipment having the capacity to dial number without human intervention may be an autodialer, regardless of whether such equipment is actually used in such a manner.
As can be expected, it is not always clear whether an equipment configuration is considered an “autodialer.” Thus, the problem addressed by the present disclosure is ensuring that compliance related regulations and policies are adhered to while also complying with the mandate that prohibits the use of “autodialers” to call wireless numbers. It is against this backdrop that the concepts and technologies disclosed herein are presented.